Old Market Scare is an event that ran from 25th October - 31st October 2019. The event is run by Mellor's group, who is probably most known for being the owners of Fantasy Island, located in Ingoldmells, Skegness, however, as they are located locally to Nottingham they are also tasked at putting on events on the Market Square.
Some of the events ran by Mellors on "Slab Square" include Nottingham Beach in the Summer, Winter Wonderland in (you guessed it) the Winter, and of course, Halloween, dubbed "Old Market Scare" in the Autumn.
Old Market Scare has been running for a few years, last year, for example, the event featured a Ghost Train, a pop-up haunted house and a few small flat rides as well as a bar located in a huge wooden building that is used predominantly for the Winter Wonderland event.
This year, the event sees some larger rides such as a Waltzer, the Ghost Train from last year and a few small children's rides, as well as the bar in the previously mentioned building, albeit in a slightly different orientation. The main difference this year was the introduction of a scare maze called 'Horror Hotel', located around the rest of the timber building.
Guests enter the maze via some stairs attached to the bar, which is also where you can buy your tickets, as well as a pre scare drink to settle your nerves. Whilst waiting downstairs, a constant soundtrack plays and before no time we hear a ding of a bell coming from upstairs, it seems our room is ready! We made our way upstairs and to a peculiar gentleman who manned the front desk, who welcomed us to the Horror Hotel and explained that the only room available was Room 13, although it came with a warning that many have entered but very few leaves.
We were then let into the maze itself, which was around a 15-minute experience and featured some great scares, as well as some rather interesting characters! Our favorite had to have been the gentlemen in the smoking room within the hotel, who went from friendly to frantic rather quickly. An honorable mention goes to the lady in the kitchen who managed to scare us using only a ladle…
The design and theming throughout the maze was brilliant and did feel to the same standard as the mazes found at Fantasy Island, it's great to see Mellors Group expanding the scare offering to those closer to home!
Overall, Old Market Scare seems to be getting better and better every year, so we are excited to see what they will do next year!
